Step-by-step: With a playoff win under their belt, Chargers looking for bigger and better things

"It's an example of how just get to the postseason and anything
can happen. We got to the postseason and all of a sudden you're
three hours away from the Super Bowl."

Breakthrough opportunity

The ability to use hindsight makes it easy to categorize the
defining victories and key breakthroughs for numerous NFL
title-winning squads.

It is much harder using foresight to identify when one might
occur.

Yet if the Chargers were to advance to this season's Super Bowl,
today's game with the Colts could very well be remembered as such a
victory.

The Colts are the defending champions and hard to beat at home.
They have both a quarterback and head coach who should someday be
enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

They also possess a serious postseason edge when compared with
the Chargers, who just last week recorded their first playoff
victory in Tomlinson's seven-year career.

"It's great to get that win (over Tennessee) and get that monkey
off your back, but we're playing against the defending Super Bowl
champs," Neal said. "We're playing against the Indianapolis Colts,
and they don't care if you got that win and you finally won a game
in the playoffs. Manning and those guys could care less. It was a
great win, but it doesn't dictate this game at all."

The postseason terrain is dangerous and not for the faint of
heart. As Smith says, the conditions get tougher every week.

"Each one is pressure-packed, and they get more difficult as you
go along," Smith said. "One step is out of the way, and now we're
on to an unbelievable challenge."